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Christmas Pigeons ::
One of our collection of as-yet unpublished Christmas resources.
This is written by CRAIG TUCKER, and is based on Luke 2:21-40
Source: Author – unpublished in Perspective
Key Idea: Are you longing for the coming of God’s kingdom?
Opening Illustration: Homing Pigeons. Smart. Navigate Thousands of miles. I get lost in the next suburb. How come an animal with a brain the size of a pea can do that? ..This morning: we’re going to see, there’s lots to learn from pigeons.
The Things You Can Learn From Pigeons The passage begins: we meet Mary & Joseph, on their way to the temple. Its eight days after Jesus is born. (Its his first trip to the temple…its a bit like the photo we have at the front of Sophies baby book – her first trip to McDonalds. That significant rite of passage in our society. That big first time debut.)
Its interesting: we’re told so little in the Bible about the early years of Jesus. His time growing up. The other 3 gospels have virtually nothing. And in Luke all we have are a few lines here in the second half of Chap 2. – And of all the things we might wanna know about the growing up of Jesus. everything that happened till he was 30. All we have to go on are two strange little incidents in the temple, here in the second half of Luke Chap 2. And some of the details Luke tells us here, at first reading seem a bit mystifying.
..I mean we’re told all about there being two pigeons. Its sounds like a boring day in the cricket commentary when they start talking about the seagulls in the outfield. Common ordinary, scavenger birds…rats with wings. Mary & Joseph bring two pigeons. When there must be so much to say about the growing up of Jesus: why take the time telling us a detail like that? – Well, I suppose the two pigeons are the mark of an eye-witness account. Do you get what I mean? If you were making a story up, or telling something you only vaguely knew second-hand, its probably the sort of detail you’d miss. But someone who could remember the scene…still picture it in their memory. – Or the pigeons: Luke might mention them to remind us of the humble situation of Jesus’ birth. You see: The OT actually said: when you brought a child to the temple to give thanks like this: you sacrificed an animal: a sheep or a goat. But there was a hardship provision. Those who genuinely couldn’t scrape together enough to pay for a sheep to sacrifice, like normal people. In extreme circumstances of poverty, the parents could buy two pigeons instead. …You see these pigeons, are a mark of shame – parents who want the best for their kids, but simply aren’t able to give it. Like sending them to school with no shoes & no lunch. Its like a woman getting married in jeans & a T-shirt. Not as a statement. She’d dearly love to walk down the aisle in a wedding dress, but by begging or borrowing, can’t find any way to do it.
In the culture of the day, this important event at the temple…These pigeons are an insight into something important about Jesus, aren’t they? When the king of heaven came into our world: It was no smooth privileged pillow ride, immune from life’s hardships, unable to relate to the struggles we might go thru.
But probably even more than all that: the pigeons are in this story, are part of something Luke is emphasising in the first few verses of our passage: (Who can tell me? If you look at vv22-24. Can you see the phrase, or the idea that keeps getting repeated?
Look again at vv22-24: On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him. (As the law required circumcision on the 8th day). Then it explicitly says in v22: ..When the time of their purification ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF MOSES had been completed. Luke makes a point of telling us Mary kept the Law’s requirement of a time of “purification after childbirth” before entering the temple. V22 goes on: Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (AS IT IS WRITTEN IN THE LAW OF THE LORD, (AND THEN the actual spot in the OT.. the command is quoted) “EVERY FIRSTBORN MALE IS TO BE CONSECRATED TO THE LORD”) And to offer a sacrifice IN KEEPING WITH WHAT IS SAID IN THE LAW OF THE LORD: (And again quoting the actual OT stipulation) “A PAIR OF DOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS.” – Even down in v27: they put Jesus in Simeon’s arms, fulfilling what the Law required.
You starting to get the point:
According to the Law of Moses…As it is written in the Law of the Lord…In Keeping with What is said in the Law of the Lord. As the custom of the Law required. Again & again in these verses. God’s Law. God’s Law. God’s Law. – Do you get the impression Luke is keen for us to see something? In every little detail of Jesus’ life, from the very beginning in his parents arms, his whole life will be lived keeping perfectly God’s law.
You see: what you and I can’t do: Jesus came to do for us: Jesus, like no-one else, will do what God says…even down to the nitpicking details of the law’s requirements about times of purification, circumcision, the right sacrifice. – And then with his perfect life: at the cross, at his death, he swaps with you & I: he’ll take our disobedience, and in exchange gives us his perfect record of obedience, to be our own. That when God looks down on you & I he sees us, not just as forgiven – but as people he is pleased with and delighted in. # If you can imagine a ship going down: you find yourself on the deck about to leap into the water. And you suddenly realise two things: First you remember you can’t swim, and second there’s a huge lead weight strapped to your back. And there beside you on the deck, is Michael Klim with a lifejacket on. And just as the water comes up to your knees: he pulls off his life jacket and puts it on you. And takes your lead weight on his own back. As you jump into the water, as you float on the surface in the lifejacket, and watch him disappear into the depths, sink like a stone to the bottom…never a chance… – That’s the swap Jesus did for you at the cross: he not only took your burden, the punishment for your sin. But he gave you in its place: his ticket to heaven. His life jacket: his perfect obedience that makes you acceptable in God’s presence.
Luke is letting us know from the very beginning – the rescuer the OT promised, that God’s people have longed to see: has finally arrived.
Simeon But more than that in this story: this OT longing for God’s kingdom has a human face. Here in the temple, we’re confronted with two people who embody what the OT longed for.. for this great Messiah to come. In two strange little encounters, we meet Simeon & Anna. – Luke describes Simeon the OT priest as someone “waiting for the consolation of Israel” For God’s people to finally be comforted, for their groaning and longing for the Messiah to finally be satisfied. – As Mary & Joseph arrive at the temple, imagine how creepy it must’ve been, if you can picture it: an old man they’ve never met, a stranger, has been waiting for them. In fact he’s been waiting many years, for them to arrive. God had esp. told Simeon: he wouldn’t die till he’d seen the Messiah. But even more than that: he knows that today is the day. And this finally is THE CHILD God so long ago promised to send, that Simeon for all this time has been longing to see.
In v29 Simeon begins: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace”. Like someone desperately tired, but fighting off sleep to stay awake for something important. Simeon has stubbornly clung to life, ..for the privilege of seeing God’s great salvation arrive. This is the day he’s dreamed of. …”Lord now take me: now I can go. ..Dismiss your servant” (We almost expect Simeon to go off into the corner, curl himself up in a ball, and drop off peacefully and contentedly to sleep, never to wake up again. He’s seen it all at last.
But also just as Mary & Joseph are accosted by this strange old priest, “talking about God now dismissing him” … As maybe they’re backing away from Simeon…a strange old lady appears out of nowhere. Calling out and drawing a crowd around Mary & Joseph. If you look down at v36, a prophetess named Anna, addressing the crowd, speaking to everyone about this child, and what Luke calls “the redemption of Jerusalem”.
In fact, if you look in v36 Luke sketches for us a 1 minute lightening portrait of Anna’s life. A sad and lonely picture. As a young woman she spent a few brief years with her husband, and then he died long before his time. She never remarried. Instead has spent her whole life: the last 60 years or so just hanging round the temple. And we’re told that each day, she came to the temple to fast & pray. Fasting was something you did when you were waiting for God to answer your prayer. Something you desperately wanted him to do. ..You know if I pray for something for 3 or 4 days, and nothing happens I’m sorely tempted to give up. God’s not gunna do it. Maybe I’ll make it for a whole week sometimes if I’m really firing on all cylinders. I just can’t seem to stick at it. Or maybe there’s just nothing I’ve ever wanted desperately enough, that it keeps me praying. – I think Luke wants us to u/stand: Here it seems in the coming of Jesus, Anna’s great prayer, her 60 years of praying each day, the thing she has spent a lonely lifetime coming to the temple for…the event she longed to see, has finally come.
But its important not to miss, the thing about Jesus they’ve both been longing for: God’s rescue plan has finally arrived. Like being trapped in the Thredbo disaster wondering if ever help will ever find you, and suddenly you hear them, you see a pinprick of light, and feel the finger of the rescuer. – After all this time, the rescue has begun. In v29 Simeon says: “Sovereign Lord, …dismiss your servant. For my eyes have seen your SALVATION, (here in this child) your SALVATION which you have prepared in the sight of all people”. – Simeon talks about God’s salvation, as something carefully prepared. This moment God’s been doing the ground work for, thru the whole OT, for thousands of years. – And this salvation…the thing we need rescuing from isn’t that we’re trapped under a whole lot of rubble, but something much worse. Simeon’s wonder is that God’s finally gunna do something about sin. That’s what they need saving from. You see Luke is no Agatha Christie whodunit writer: we’re not left waiting till the last page to see what happens to Jesus, and then suddenly we’re surprised: Here at his birth, he’s giving away the whole time exactly how the story ends. What his death will be all about.
…If you can picture the scene: here in the temple, where animal sacrifices were made each day, by the priests. Here in the temple: Mary hands over Jesus, as the priest takes him in his arms.. Simeon knows here at last has come: the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. The one perfect sacrifice, that all this temple, and all its ceremony, and every sacrifice every day right thru the OT …has all been simply a preparation for…the appearing of God’s salvation, in the person of his son.
But also, its important this morning for each of us to see in Simeon’s words, there’s a dark side to the arrival of God’s kingdom.. You see: He will not be everyone’s Saviour. In v34 This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against. – The coming of Jesus isn’t what everyone is longing for: Jesus will divide people. Some will leave everything to follow him. Will be filled with joy just like Simeon & Anna – what they’ve longed for, for so long…But others will oppose him & speak against him. Unlike Simeon & Anna: their hopes, their longings, are in different things. Not in the coming of God’s king. Jesus, isn’t the fulfilment of their dreams, but threatens to shatter them. Which is why they so desperately seek to kill him, and have him crucified.
Conclusion:
We must each decide where we stand with Jesus. There are lots of decisions at Xmas. I hate shopping…I can never decide what to get people. …But there one decision, that won’t go away with the Xmas season. We have to decide, ..which side are you on with Jesus.
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